Infamous Nagoya murderer gets death sentence for earlier killing

AICHI (TR) – The Nagoya District Court on Tuesday handed down a death sentence to a 40-year-old man currently serving a life term for a murder in 2007 for another infamous killing that utilized an underground Web site one decade before, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (Dec. 15).

Judge Taro Kageyama sentenced Yoshitomo Hori to death for the robbery and murder of 45-year-old Ichio Magoori, the manager of a pachinko parlor, and his wife, Satomi, 36, in Hekinan City, Aichi Prefecture in June of 1998.

“They were killed one after another in a cold-blooded robbery,” said Kageyama. “Since it was done with an extreme disregard for human life, there is no reason to avoid capital punishment.”

In the case from 2007, Hori and two accomplices, Kenji Kawagishi and Tsukasa Kanda, kidnapped and murdered Rie Isogai, 31, in Chikusa Ward of Nagoya. After pushing her into a van, three men beat her with a hammer and choked her with a rope.

The case garnered notoriety since Hori had met Kawagishi and Kanda on an underground Internet bulletin board for people looking for partners in crime.

In September of that year, Isogai’s mother launched a petition that called for the defendants to receive the death penalty. By December of 2008, it had been signed by more than 300,000 people.

Two years later, Hori was sentenced to death. However, the ruling was reduced to life in prison by an upper court in 2011 due to considerations that he could be reintegrated into society.

Kanda received the death penalty, and was executed in June of this year. Kawagishi was sentenced to life in prison.